To think people need to realise dogs are animals and act as such?

[thisbloodydog]

I had an altercation with my dog yesterday and I’ve gone from mortified to annoyed!

My dog is 8 and is a Labrador. Until yesterday he’s genuinely had 100% recall and never given me any reason to doubt him. He comes back from anywhere with one shout of his name and if he didn’t then he wouldn’t be off lead.

Whilst walking in a local park (where off lead is permitted) he suddenly ran off. I can’t explain how out of character this is for him. I shouted him and it was like he’d gone deaf.

I ran after him as he’d gone over a hill. When I caught up to him I saw a family group having a bbq (illegally). They were about to hit him and were furious.

It turns out he’d sniffed their food, gone off on one and had basically ransacked their bbq.

Of course I was absolutely mortified and apologised profusely. I explained it was completely unlike him and that I would of course not let him off the lead again unless I was 100% sure his recall was in place.

They responded by shouting and swearing at me and saying that they were going to report my dog as dangerous. When I asked why he was dangerous (ie if he had growled at the food etc) they said the fact he took the food off the bbq was dangerous.

Whilst I was trying to apologise they said I owed them £40 for the bbq food he ate and kept insulting my dog and threatening to report him. At this point I said enough was enough and that they shouldn’t have had the bbq in the park anyway (it’s not allowed usually and it’s especially not allowed with the dry grass). I basically said if they wanted to report my dog then I’d be happy to report them back.

At this point they lost it even further and I walked off as there were children present and it felt completely inappropriate to descend into a shouting match.

I am a big believer in dogs having 100% recall if they are off lead and as I said until today he has. We will absolutely go back to basics with training and not running off for food etc.

BUT at the same time he is a dog and not a robot and I cannot possibly predict his behaviour in a completely unknown random situation. He should not encounter a bbq in this place and it was a complete surprise to us both. For once he followed his instincts and went for the food and ignored me. Again, he wasn’t dangerous and didn’t snatch food from a person or growl at anyone etc, but he did take food off the bbq.

I feel like the people needed to consider that he is a dog and he did something bad, but they were also in the wrong for having this bbq when it strictly isn’t allowed!

aibu?

Your rude comments tell me enough about your personality to disregard your opinion :)

hahaha you’ve just reminded me of this 🤣

I suppose this is it really! Now I know he will try something like this i’ll be much more careful in the future though

I’ve never had a strange dog manage to steal food but I am comfortable around dogs as are kids, so I just get hold of them and send them back to owner/hold onto them until they are collected or block their access if they come sniffing around. I kind of assume that food at ground level in a park is going to attract the odd interested dog (and occasionally toddler!)

I’m glad it’s not only my dog who is an apparent menace to society!

Literally nothing rude about that comment.

It’s rude to impose a thieving animal on an innocent family trying to have some lunch.

MN is a really fantastic study into the human psyche. Should be studied tbh.

@Ballybeat If it is marked as a dog walking area and dogs are permitted off lead, which this space was, then it is rather stupid to enter said space if you are scared of dogs.

I think calling someone an arsehole over a mistake is quite rude but each to their own!

Thank you for having my back 🤣 I wish I could edit the post to make it clear it was in a dog area and was clearly signposted as no picnics

Yeah an ‘innocent’ family having a picnic in a dog walking field when there is a dedicated picnic area. Stupid is as stupid does I guess.

Our puppy stole a gingernut at Durdle Door 😬

Dogs should be on leads in parks. We had one come and grab food from my DS's hands during a picnic. I don't hate dogs but would like to see their owners keeping them under control in public places.

There’s no where else to go that restricts dogs as I have previously mentioned they are allowed absolutely everywhere!! I don’t think there should be any parts of a park that are designated to dogs being off Leads because as we’ve just witnessed dogs escape and run wherever they want and they’re ridiculous owners just make excuses for them!!

I just love how yours is still pilfering way into ‘old enough to know better’ territory 🤣🤣🤣

Doggo isn’t too bad now - he scavenges poo and other gross stuff. His half brother (owned by my friend) however is a counter surfer. Food isn’t safe near him.

I’m a new dog owner whose first walk with my puppy and my son was made massively more stressful by a group with two of three dogs out of control jumping up to say hello to the puppy, who my son had in his arms when we saw the dogs off leads in the distance. The biggest was massive - up to my shoulders when he jumped and up to my son’s head. The owners called and scrambled after them but only after they had jumped several times.

The dogs weren’t aggressive but it was frightening due to their size and the lack of any control by their owners. Being rushed by an unfamiliar animal is scary, full stop. This was in a well-used path by a field, so not an unusual place to be off lead and I accept unexpected things can happen even for well-trained dogs. That said, what made it so much worse was that they did not apologise, speak to us, or reply to me at all when I (calmly but firmly) said the dogs should not be off lead if they could not recall them. I have had similar lack of apology with dogs jumping in parks all over our city, and in one case when a dog jumped on a young girl who was frightened of dogs was told by its owner (when I called her attention from
her phone to say her dog was scaring a child) that the park was ‘a dog place’.

Of course it’s rubbish being shouted and sworn at and that’s not ideal, but I still think YABU. People can be unreasonable if scared or angry, and they were both due to actions by your dog. Whether you like it or not he is potentially dangerous if you can’t control him. A dog on or off a lead is entirely the owner’s responsibility and - here’s the bit that seems to be slipping these days - people always have a right to not interact with your animal if they don’t want to, be that in a park, in a pub, wherever. I think any response other than immediate apology and payment for any damage / loss is not the right one.

Sisters neighbours dog had 100 percent recall she mostly walked it off the lead . Until last week when it didn't recall! it was startled by another dog (which was on a lead )it ran into the road and got hit by a lorry and a car which killed it

This.
I mean what if we substitute the word bbq for picnic.
They may have been irate and pissed off. I'd have been if I had a nice picnic and a dog ate it. Their reaction was ott but either way I'd expect to have been compensated for the food.
The fact their bbq was illegal is also wrong but doesn't mean they deserve to have no food. You can report them too of course.
Eta: if they were having a picnic or food in a designated no picnic area then yanbu!!

Well perhaps you need to campaign for some dog free spaces locally then @Flinstones. Where I am, the dog field is fully enclosed, gated and signposted and dogs can’t get out. If people choose to go in there rather than all the other parts of the park where dogs are either not permitted or only allowed on a lead then they have to accept the consequences.

YABVVVU. You might also want to look up the law. A dog is ‘out of control’ by law if it chases / charges at / jumps at people, even if it doesn’t bite them. This is a reportable offence.

A labrador! Why am I not surprised?! 😂

DD1 had her pack of crisps stolen by a seagull the other day (unopened). Fecker took them out of backpack that was open at the top. Gave chase but he flew over the other side of a pond and then set about pecking it open.

YANBU, and I say that as someone who isn't usually particularly enamoured by dogs. They were idiots for having a BBQ in a park in a drought, hopefully they'll think twice before doing something so stupid next time.

#yeahthathappened